JPH10173701A - Electronic mail receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manage an electronic mail automatically so that no transmission missing is caused, even when many electronic mails are sent. SOLUTION: A receiver is provided with a reception section 1 connecting to an electronic mail system, a mail control section 2 that controls storage and display of an electronic mail received by the reception section 1, a mail storage section 3 that stores electronic mails outputted from the mail control section 2 in the unit of folders, and a display section 4 that displays the electronic mails stored in the mail storage section 3 in the unit of folders, and the mail control section 2 is provided with a deadline dependent folder generating function 103 that generates a plurality of folders depending on reply deadline in the mail storage section, a reply deadline extract function 102 that extracts a reply deadline of an electronic mail received by the reception section 1 from the electronic mail, and a sort control function 105 that sorts and stores electronic mails, according to the reply deadline extracted by the reply deadline extract function 102 to deadline-dependent folders.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail receiving apparatus, and more particularly to an electronic mail receiving apparatus connected to an electronic mail system and receiving a large amount of electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional example of an electronic mail receiving apparatus,
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-166947 discloses a "mailbox management method in an electronic mail system". In this conventional example, a class 1 corresponding to the degree of urgency is provided on the mail server side.
Folders are set, and mail documents are stored in the class specified at the time of reception. As a result, in the conventional example, an important mail document is prevented from being overlooked due to an increase in the number of mail documents, and a search time for a target mail document is reduced.

However, in this conventional method, since the class designation itself is left to the e-mail sender, a mail document corresponding to the class is not always sent, and mail is sent to an unnecessarily high urgency class. Documents can be concentrated. In that case, there is a disadvantage that the above-mentioned improvement cannot be achieved.

FIG. 7 shows a document management example of a general conventional electronic mail system. As shown in FIG. 7, in a general conventional example, mail is received without having a management subfolder in an inbox (INBOX).

[0005]

However, in the conventional e-mail system, there is only one receiving folder, or even if a hierarchical structure is provided, only a simple classification is performed. However, there is a problem that important mail documents may be buried in the receiving folder.

Further, since the e-mail system does not have a mail document management function based on a date for a mail document with a reply deadline, a large amount of mail documents are accumulated in a receiving folder. Not only is it difficult to search for documents accurately, but there is also the inconvenience of forgetting to reply in time.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the disadvantages of the prior art, and in particular, automatically manages e-mails so that no reply is lost even when a large amount of e-mails are sent. To do so.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, according to the present invention, a receiving unit connected to an electronic mail system, a mail control unit for controlling storage and display of an electronic mail received by the receiving unit, and a mail control unit A mail storage unit for storing the e-mail output from the e-mail for each folder, and a display unit for displaying the e-mail stored in the e-mail storage unit for each folder. In addition, the mail control unit has a folder-by-time limit creation function for creating a plurality of folders for each response time limit in the mail storage unit, and a reply time limit extraction function for extracting the response time limit of the email received by the receiving unit from the email. And a distribution control function of distributing and storing the e-mails in the folders according to the term according to the reply term extracted by the reply term extracting function. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

A mail document with a reply deadline is automatically sorted to a reply deadline management subfolder in a receiving folder created in advance by a deadline folder creation function by a sorting control function at the time of reception.

[0010] Since the subfolders are managed by today's expiration date, expiration date, expiration date, and expiration date folders, it is possible to easily grasp the mail document whose communication expiration date is approaching and prevent forgetting to reply. Can be.

Similarly, for a mail document already received and stored in the above-described subfolder, the subfolder is updated and the mail document is automatically moved with the elapse of the date when the e-mail system is started. Will be

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the electronic mail receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment. The e-mail receiving device includes a receiving unit 1 connected to the e-mail system, a mail control unit 2 for controlling storage and display of the e-mail received by the receiving unit 1, and an e-mail output from the e-mail control unit 2. An e-mail storage unit 3 for storing e-mails for each folder, and a display unit 4 for displaying e-mails stored in the e-mail storage unit 3 for each folder are provided.

Further, the mail control unit 2 has a folder creation function (folder management function) 103 by time limit for creating a plurality of folders in the mail storage unit 3 for each reply time limit, and a reply time limit of the e-mail received by the receiving unit 1. Expiration date extraction function (email expiration date check function) 102 for extracting e-mails from the e-mail, and a distribution control function (e-mail document) for distributing and storing e-mails in folders according to expiration dates in accordance with the response expiration date extracted by this expiration date extraction function 102 (Automatic sorting function) 105.

This will be described in detail.

The term-specific folder creation function 103 creates a plurality of folders in the mail storage unit 3 according to whether or not the term has expired. For this reason, the mail storage unit 3 stores the expired folder for storing the expired e-mail, the expired folder for storing the unexpired e-mail, and the expiration date for storing the expired e-mail. And a folder.

The mail control unit 2 manages the current date and time and sets the deadline period according to the current date and time information (date management function) 101.
Is compared with the expiration date set by the expiration date setting function 101 and the reply expiration date of each e-mail extracted by the reply expiration extraction function 102, and based on the comparison result, the e-mail is stored in the mail storage unit. 3 is provided with a comparison sorting control function 105 for sorting to each folder.

The expiration date setting function 101 manages the current date of the computer on which the e-mail software is running, the current expiration date of the mail folder name, and the date within the expiration date in a table format in association with the date. This folder control table will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment,
“Expiration period” is set in units of “1 day”.
Therefore, if the computer date is 96/8/25, the deadline period is “06/8/25” of “today's deadline”.

The reply time limit extracting function 102 checks the time limit of the reply time limit mail.

The term-specific folder creation function 103 creates a reply time limit management subfolder (today, due date, expired, no time limit) in the receiving folder, and creates a reply time limit subfolder as the date elapses. Update the date of the folder control table corresponding to that date.

The distribution control function 105 automatically distributes and stores the mail document in a folder corresponding to the return period of the mail document upon reception. The mail control function 106
Controls the entire e-mail software.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a transition of storing a mail document in the sub-folder for managing a reply time limit when a mail is received, and showing a state in which the mail received for each folder is displayed on the display unit 4. .

When the mail shown in FIG. 3A is received, if the computer date is 960825, the first mail document, which is the return date 96/08/25, and the title "Delivery date confirmation" is the computer date and the reply Since the expiration dates are the same, they are stored in the today expiration date subfolder by the automatic mail document sorting function 105. This state is shown in FIG.
It is shown in (B).

Similarly, a third mail document with a reply deadline of 96/08/31, the title "Conference attendance confirmation matter" and a fourth mail document with a reply deadline of 96/09/02 and the title "Seminar holding matter" Is stored by the distribution control function 105 to the due folder.

At this time, the date of the mail document having the date closest to the reply deadline (in this example, 9608 of the third mail)
At 31), the date corresponding to the deadline in the folder control table is also updated. FIG. 3C shows a state in which the third and fourth mail documents described above are stored in the due folder.

As shown in FIG. 3D, the mail documents having the titles "notice" and "shipping information" which do not have a return time limit are both stored in a time-limited subfolder by the mail document automatic sorting function 105.

Further, in the present embodiment, the mail control unit 2
When the expiration date set by the expiration date setting function 101 is changed, each e-mail stored in each folder of the mail storage unit 3 is moved to another folder according to the changed expiration date. A movement control function (mail document file management function) 104 is provided.

The mail movement control function 104 moves the document to the folder when the expiration of the mail document already in the folder occurs with the passage of the date or when the date of the reply expires.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the transition of subfolder update and mail document movement by the mail movement control function 104. When today's date becomes 96/08/31, the mail movement control function 104 moves each mail shown in FIG. 3 to the holder shown in FIGS. 4A to 4C.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. This flowchart is continued by reference numeral A in FIGS.

First, when the e-mail software starts up,
The mail control function 106 determines whether or not it is the first startup (steps 201 and 202). In the case of the first startup, the deadline period setting function 101 updates the today's date of the email to the computer date, and at the same time, the deadline-based folder creation function 103 places the reply deadline management subfolder (today deadline, deadline) in the receiving folder. (Expiration date, no expiration date) (step 203).

At this time, a folder control table is also created. If today's date is "960825", that date is set in the date column corresponding to today's deadline of the subfolder. If it is not the first startup, the above-described step 203 is skipped.

Next, the current date of the mail is compared with the computer date (step 204). If the dates are the same, there is no need to change the sub-folder for managing the reply deadline, so the processing shifts to mail reception (step 211).

As shown in FIG. 6, when a mail is received (step 211), it is first checked whether or not a time limit has been reached.
If the reply deadline has not been set, the received mail is stored in the folder with no deadline (step 21).
3).

On the other hand, if the reply deadline of the received mail is equal to the current date (step 214), it is stored in the today's deadline subfolder (step 215). Further, if the time has expired (step 216), the received mail is stored in the expired folder.

The mail within the reply deadline is stored in the deadline folder. At this time, the date of the mail document having the date closest to the reply deadline (960831 of the third mail in this example) is also updated in the folder control table within the deadline (steps 218 to 220).

Returning to step 204 again, the case where the current mail date and the computer date are different is shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. Here again the computer date is 9
The description will be made assuming that the folder state of FIG.

The difference between the current mail date and the computer date indicates that the date has elapsed, in other words, the mail has expired. Therefore, although the reply deadline 96/08/25 and the title delivery date confirmation are included in the today's deadline subfolder, the mail transfer control function 104 moves to the expired subfolder because it is clearly expired.

At this time, the date corresponding to today's deadline in the folder control table is updated to 960831 (steps 205 to 206). Next, the date (960831) corresponding to the deadline subfolder in the folder control table is compared with the computer date (step 207).
The mail document 31 is moved to the today's deadline subfolder by the mail transfer control function 104 (step 210).

If the computer date is larger, the corresponding mail is moved to the expired subfolder as an expired mail (step 208).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the mail document is automatically managed in the subfolder in the reception box, so that the operator can search the mail with less effort and prevent forgetting the reply. be able to.

A subfolder according to the reply deadline is automatically created in the receiving folder, and since the corresponding mail is automatically managed, important mail having a reply deadline for a person who receives a large amount of mail is buried in the receiving folder. Can be prevented, and at the same time, forgetting to reply can be prevented.

Since the subfolder created in the receiving folder is created with a name that can be seen at a glance, the received mail document is searched because the subfolder is designated as necessary because the mail list can be viewed. If
The corresponding mail document can be easily searched.

[0044]

The present invention is constructed and functions as described above. According to this, the folder creation function by term creates a plurality of folders according to the reply term in the mail storage unit, and the distribution control function The e-mail is sorted and stored in the folder according to the deadline according to the reply deadline extracted by the deadline extraction function, so that the received e-mail can be automatically divided into folders according to the reply deadline and stored. Provide an unprecedented superior e-mail receiving device that can prevent important mails with a deadline for replies from being buried in the receiving folder for those who receive a large amount of e-mails and effectively prevent forgetting to reply. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic mail receiving device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a folder control table for managing dates in the present invention and its transition.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are explanatory diagrams showing a storage state in a reception folder at the time of receiving a mail. FIG. 3A is a diagram showing a list of received mails, and FIG. 3 (C) is a diagram showing the contents of the “folder within the time limit”, and FIG. 3 (D) is a diagram showing the contents of the “folder without the time limit”.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the update status of a received mail in a receiving folder. FIG. 4A is a diagram showing the contents of a “today deadline folder (expired folder)”, and FIG.
FIG. 4C is a diagram showing the contents of the “folder within the time limit”, and FIG. 4C is a diagram showing the contents of the “folder without the time limit”.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a first stage of the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a latter stage of the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a conventional e-mail receiving folder.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Receiving part 2 Mail control part 3 Mail storage part 4 Display part 101 Date management function (expiration date setting function) 102 Reply expiration extraction function 103 Deadline folder creation function 104 E-mail management function (Email movement control function) 105 Distribution control Function (Mail document automatic sorting function) 106 Mail control function

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A receiving unit connected to an e-mail system, a mail control unit for controlling storage and display of an e-mail received by the receiving unit, and an e-mail output from the e-mail control unit for each folder. An e-mail receiving device comprising: a mail storage unit for storing; and a display unit for displaying e-mail stored in the e-mail storage unit for each folder. A folder creation function by period to create multiple folders,
A reply period extracting function for extracting a reply period of the e-mail received by the receiving unit from the e-mail; and a distribution control for distributing and storing the e-mails in the folder according to the period according to the reply period extracted by the reply period extracting function. An e-mail receiving device having a function. 2. The mail storage unit stores a deadline folder for storing an expired email, a deadline folder for storing an unexpired email, and an expired email. The mail control unit manages the current date and time and sets a deadline period according to the current date and time information, and the mail control unit is set by the deadline period setting function. A comparison distribution control function for comparing the expiration date and the reply expiration date of each of the e-mails extracted by the reply expiration date extraction function, and distributing the e-mail to each folder of the e-mail storage unit based on the comparison result. The electronic mail receiving device according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. The e-mail control unit, when the expiration date set by the expiration date setting function is changed, changes each electronic mail stored in each folder of the mail storage unit. 2. The electronic mail receiving device according to claim 1, further comprising a mail moving control function of moving the folder according to a term expiration period.